The Almanac: ML resident, blog help to find missing woman

It's not often that city traffic turns out to be a good thing, but that's what happened April 22.

Charlotte Stephenson of Mt. Lebanon was leaving the Priory after a fundraiser for Sojourner House, and rather than sitting in traffic, she decided to check her Blackberry and let things clear out a little before heading to the South Hills.

One of the sites she checked was Elaine Gillen's blog on the Lebo Citizens website, where the top story was about police looking for a missing 77-year-old Mt. Lebanon woman. A photo was posted of the missing woman, and even on the Blackberry's small screen, Stephenson thought she had seen the woman before. Read the full article:

• www.thealmanac.net/alm/story11/04-25-2012-ML-blog- (The Almanac)

Letter: Getting the facts straight about tomorrow's town hall

Recently on Blog-Lebo, we posted about a town-hall meeting scheduled for Saturday, 28 August, 2010 (tomorrow). We also posted about Kristen Linfante's letter questioning that meeting. Now Charlotte Stephenson, one of the meeting's organizers, writes in to rebut some claims being made about the meeting in an ongoing email campaign. —Tom


Getting the facts straight about tomorrow's town hall

To all folks who are participating in the circulation of the following e-mail, please do the right thing and circulate a correction. In what follows, I present quotations from the original e-mail followed by my corrections in italics. —Charlotte Stephenson

Hello friends,

I'm not sure if you are aware of what is going on in our community, but contrary to popular belief, there are many road blocks being put up to prevent our school renovation from moving forward.

The roadblocks are of the school district’s own doing since the project design does not comply with our municipal law.

This is a critical time for our community. Those in favor of the high school renovation project need to pull together to show their support before it is too late. We cannot afford to let another ten years go by while our school continues to fall apart and our neighbors continue to move south. Tomorrow there is a "town hall" meeting scheduled at the municipal building. I put town hall in quotes because this meeting has been offered as an invitation only event to those apparently opposed to the current plan.

This meeting is not about the high school project and the invitees are not against the current high school project. In fact, some attendees are proponents of the current project. Anyone can have a meeting and invite whomever they want, unless they violate Sunshine Law and that is not happening here.

Please see this week's Almanac editorial for details.
http://www.thealmanac.net/ALM/Story/08-25-2010-letter-Mt--Lebanon-Linfante

Please read the Post-Gazette article rather than the suggested opinion piece.

A group of concerned residents of Mt. Lebanon are joining together to get the message out that we are not going to tolerate backhanded strategies to promote propaganda in our community.

This is a private meeting intended to provide a forum for discussion about our local economy.

If you are in favor of moving forward with the school renovation project, please gather at the municipal building tomorrow at 9 AM. Even if you are not sure where you stand on the renovation project, please help us get the message across that public meetings,

This is a private, not public, meeting.

with public officials,

Most are not public officials and those who are, are not officially representing their correlating agencies.

held in a closed door venue

True, the meeting room does indeed have a door.

will not be tolerated in this community.

Please refer to our first amendment right to assemble and discuss issues which are of importance to us. The right to freedom of association is recognized as a human right, a political freedom, and a civil liberty. I would hope this right is not only tolerated, but supported!

We need as many people, of all ages, to rally in support of this cause. Please help us get the word out to as many neighbors and friends as possible!

If you are going to encourage a protest, give people the facts so they can decide if protesting our first amendment rights is really what they want to protest against. The rumor mill is in full gear and participants may end up feeling embarrassed for raising a fuss about something that does not exist.

The meeting is scheduled for 9:30 but we are meeting at 9:00 to make sure that we go over proper conduct for our gathering. Bring signs saying, "Save our School" or "Dig Now" or "Whose town is it?" or "Don't be Fooled, Build our School". Kids are encouraged to come.

Please, teach your children well and do not encourage them to be manipulated by uninformed adults and fictional causes.

Charlotte Stephenson
Mt. Lebanon

A Newsmaker You Should Know: She's On Mission To Lower Cost Of Mt. Lebanon School Project

At a January school board meeting, a Mt. Lebanon resident stood up and described his struggle with unemployment over the past year and a half. He was one of the dozens of residents who have spoken at public meetings, before and since then, about the high school renovation project.

One resident, Jim Martin, said if taxes went up significantly, he could not afford to remain in Mt. Lebanon. As he spoke, a friend, Charlotte Stephenson, was sitting in the auditorium, listening. She was there because she was also worried about the costs, although she knew the financial burden would not force her family to move out of the municipality.

Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/10126/1055835-55.stm